DTES Community Classes

At Eastside Boxing Club, we offer a variety of free classes for the residents of the Downtown Eastside Community. These classes are funded by our community partners and generous donors, and often have free childminding and food.

DTES Community Classes

At Eastside Boxing Club, we offer a variety of free classes for the residents of the Downtown Eastside Community. These classes are funded by our community partners and generous donors, and often have free childminding and food.

Self-Defence Classes

Who: All women, female-identified, and all members of LGBTTQQ2S. Eastside provides free self-defence classes bi-weekly to women, female-identified and all members of LGBTTQQ2S living in or around East Vancouver.

What: The focus of the class is to teach the participants how to effectively protect themselves from an attacker by teaching them how to utilize their attacker’s force and weight against them as a form of self-defence. The techniques that are primarily taught originate from JuJitsu. JuJitsu literally stands for “gentle art”. It translates to this as jitsu does not require sheer strength or power to execute its technique. Instead, JuJitsu teaches people how to use their body weight and the rules of physics to counteract the force and weight of their opponent. This skill is especially important, as an attacker will almost always be bigger than their victim. Instructors include Eastside coach, Meego Yassin (PTT Brazilian JuJitsu Brown Belt) and movement professional Verena Pelletier.

Where: Eastside Boxing Club at 238 Keefer Street, Vancouver

When: 9am on Sundays (bi-weekly)

Why/Partner: Because of recent violent attacks against women in our community in 2015, 2016 and 2017 Eastside Boxing Club has partnered with Black Lab Vancouver to provide self-defense classes to self-identified women and all members of LGBTTQQ2S in and around East Vancouver.

Making Moves: Mom & Tot’s Boxing Program:

Who: The target population of the program is women and in particular mothers that live in the DTES neighbourhood. To remove barriers to regular physical activity for mothers in the neighbourhood, child care and nutritious snacks will be provided for all that require it.

Initial Program participants (As identified as part of the UBC Research Project):

What: Free non-contact box-fit class in a judgement free space. Childminding for babies and toddlers, food and beverages will all be provided.

Where: Eastside Boxing Club, 238 Keefer Street, Vancouver

When: Every Tuesday from 10am -11:30am.

Schedule:

10am – 10:30 Coffee social

10:30-11:30 Workout

Why: In a recent, successful collaboration, with UBC and Crabtree Corner, we ran a weekly boxing/strength and conditioning/self-defense course for women that were taking part in trauma and violence informed physical activity programming. Along with researchers, community partners, and most importantly the women that accessed the program, we identified the need to offer ongoing programming to support women experiencing marginalization in the DTES. Through this research, it was identified that women wanted to be physically active but they identified a lack of spaces that met their needs. The women discussed the tremendous benefits to participating in physical activity, especially boxing. Boxing helped to facilitate a sense of empowerment and community for the participating women and provided them with a safe space to work out together.

The goal of this program is to be a barrier free, structured, regularly scheduled non-contact box-fit class for those who would normally not be able to afford such a class. By providing this class we hope to create long-term changes in physical, mental and emotional well-being. Studies have long stated the importance of physical activity in maintaining a healthy life-style, however for many, being physically active is a luxury that is not afforded to many in our community. The negative impacts of this is cyclical, if women/mothers are not given the opportunity to be physically active and learn about healthy eating and exercise habits, these behaviours do not get passed on to their children.

Organizations: This program has been created in partnership with Eastside Boxing Club, Good Food For All. Participating organizations include: Crabtree Sheway and Vancouver Women’s Health Collective

Frontline Fight Club

Who: All Frontline Workers dealing with the opioid crisis are welcome.

What: Frontline Fight Club provides free boxing classes for frontline workers, aimed at bringing together those that are impacted by the effect of the province’s overdose crisis. By working through the stress of their jobs in the boxing gym, frontline workers are able to take better care of themselves and the communities they serve. The mental and emotional benefits of boxing can not be underestimated, in addition, the Frontline Fight Club provides an important sense of community for its members. For more information see the Frontline Fight Club on CTV.